by Sean Pratt | Jun 5, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! “Music and lights bring magic to life.” – Buster Moon In our latest Family Fun Film, “Sing,” watch as Buster Moon (a dapper koala) who presides over a once-grand theater pulls out all the stops in his last chance...
by Sean Pratt | Jun 2, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! “Every Town / Has Its Ups And Downs / Sometimes Ups / Outnumber The Downs / But Not In Nottingham.” Join us for a swashbuckling adventure in this weekend’s Family Fun Film, Disney’s “Robin Hood.” Watch as...
by Sean Pratt | May 28, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “What’s past is prologue.” A year ago, on May 25, 2020, Darnella Frazier, a 17-year old, took a video with her cellphone and changed the world. The Minneapolis police had given an ambiguous account of George Floyd’s death, and if it hadn’t been for...
by Sean Pratt | May 26, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry – it just gets dirtier.” When I first came to the United States to study in 1978, I had a poster of “Serpico” (1973) the way that Tony Manero had one in his bedroom in “Saturday Night Fever”...
by Sean Pratt | May 23, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “Oh, I lie now and then, I suppose. Sometimes I’d tell them the truth and they still wouldn’t believe me, so I prefer to lie.” François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” has been so much written about that I don’t know what else I can add to the...
by Sean Pratt | May 22, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! Roger: “Well, let’s see now. That’s 84 and 15 plus two. 101!” Join us for this weekend’s Family Fun Film, “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” and accompany this group of furry friends on their adventure to rescue Pongo and...
by Sean Pratt | May 21, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “They’re not what you think they are. They’re faster. They’re organized.” Ever since 1968 and the release of George Romero’s classic “Night of the Living Dead,” the popularity of the Zombie genre has been growing. Prior, there had been films with...
by Sean Pratt | May 19, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, Connor: “My dad said if anything happened to him, to find someone I could trust.” Hannah: “I’m absolutely someone you can trust.” I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a brand-new release for a very long time. Could it have been propelled by the...
by Sean Pratt | May 16, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “When you have a big human interest story, you’ve got to give it a big human interest ending. When you get people steamed up like this, don’t ever make suckers out of them.” For someone who has relished in cinema since he was born, I have...
by Sean Pratt | May 15, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! Embark on a new journey with us in this weekend’s Family Fun Film, “The Mitchells vs. The Machines.” Tag along with the Mitchells as a robot apocalypse put the brakes on their cross-country road trip. Join their family in...
by Sean Pratt | May 14, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “What happened, happened. It’s an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse for doing nothing.” Kudos to Christopher Nolan for being adamant about having his film “Tenet” (2020) get a theatrical release — and...
by Sean Pratt | May 12, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “What’s wrong dude?! Ain’t you never seen a sunset?!“ One of the things I’ve missed the most since our imposed hibernation of the past year set in has been visiting New York City. Because of business relating to the festival and my involvement on the...
by Sean Pratt | May 9, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “And then the good Lord went on to say, ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.’” What is it about serial killer movies that has...
by Sean Pratt | May 8, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! All aboard! We’re catching a train to London for this week’s Family Fun Film, “Paddington”! After an earthquake destroys his home in the Peruvian rainforest, a young bear makes his way to England in search of a new home. Paddington finds...
by Sean Pratt | May 7, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “Okay, here’s the Story. I come from the gutter. I know that. I got no education, but that’s okay. I know the street, and I’m making all the right connections. With the right woman, there’s no stopping. I could go right to the top.” I...
by Sean Pratt | May 5, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, Anna Scott : “Her most famous part. Men went to bed with the dream; they didn’t like it when they would wake up with the reality. Do you feel that way?” William : “You are lovelier this morning than you have ever been.” I’ve definitely grown...
by Sean Pratt | May 2, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters, condemned by every syllable she utters. By right she should be taken out and hung for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue!” One of my favorite moments in cinema can be found in George Cukor’s still...
by Sean Pratt | May 2, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! Join us for an exciting adventure this weekend with our Family Fun Film, “The Croods!” Accompany the Croods Family as they go on the journey of a lifetime after their cave is destroyed, and they find themselves exploring a spectacular...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 30, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “We haven’t hung in five years. This weekend is about us. We are here together. Today is the last day that we will ever be this young.” In 2018, I hosted a Q&A with the talent for George Tillman Jr.’s “The Hate U Give” at the Riviera Theatre. One...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 28, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “What I see nobody else sees. It frightens me.” I have always found comfort in the work of great filmmakers, journeying through their vision as it unfolds in front of my eyes. For me, there’s a vicarious aspect to this because I’ve never longed to...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 25, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “Thousands of years ago, Orpheus was sad and melancholic, like this little bird trapped in its cage. But one day, from the strings of his guitar that sought only one true love, a voice spoke to him of lost kisses from the lips of Eurydice.” “Black...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 24, 2021 | Family Fun Films, Film Recommendations
Greetings, SBIFF Family! Join us for this weekend’s Family Fun Film, “Rio” as Blu, a flightless macaw and the last of his kind, discovers there’s another, and that she’s a “she,” leading him on an adventure to the city of Rio....
by Sean Pratt | Apr 23, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, Mel: “You got a lot of nerve. You come in here, you lick my wife’s armpit. You know… I’m going to have that image in my head for the rest of my life with your tongue in there.” Yes, there’s a famous armpit licking scene in David O....
by Sean Pratt | Apr 21, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, Patricia: “Listen. The last sentence is beautiful. ‘Between grief and nothing, I will take grief.’ Which would you choose?” Michel: “…Grief’s stupid, l’d choose nothing. It’s not better, but grief’s a compromise. l want...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 18, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “All my life, I’ve stayed at parties too long because I didn’t know when to go.” In David Lean’s “Summertime” (1955), there’s a moment that captures for those who’ve been there, and for those who haven’t yet experienced it, the exhilaration of the...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 16, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “My name is Joel Goodson. I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night. Time of your life, huh kid?” Paul Brickman’s “Risky Business” (1983) plays as well today as it did the first time I saw it. Even better. When it...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 14, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “You must have heard surely of movie magic. You should be a stunt man, who is an actor, who is a character in a movie, who is an enemy soldier. Who’ll look for you amongst all those? People like to believe in things, and policemen are just...
by Sean Pratt | Apr 5, 2021 | General
A gorgeous coffee table showpiece, our book CINEMA IN FLUX was created as a fundraiser for SBIFF,a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization. On March 16, 2020, we were told we were going into lockdown. That first day, reeling, disbelieving, I quickly...
by Sean Pratt | Mar 31, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “I’m always struck by the bent figures in the valley.” The 36th Santa Barbara International Film Festival is here. The idea of cancelling never crossed my mind. Delaying until today (our dates are usually late January) gave us a chance to succeed with...
by Sean Pratt | Mar 30, 2021 | Film Recommendations
Dear Cinephiles, “This is no job for you. You’re always by yourself. You see a film 100 times. You’ve nothing else to do. You talk to Greta Garbo and Tyrone Power like an idiot. You work like a dog. Even holidays, Easter, Christmas.” Alfredo, the...
